Gop Panel Narrows Mayoral List To Haider

December 01, 1986|By John Kass and Steve Neal.

The frenetic search by Cook County Republican leaders for a big-name mayoral candidate for the 1987 campaign apparently ended Sunday when the party`s blue-ribbon search committee was left with one relatively unknown name.

After weeks of wooing several prominent Democrats, a former Republican governor, a former U.S. attorney and two university professors--with a mention also of a veteran defensive back for the Chicago Bears--the committee appears forced to focus its attention on former city Budget Director Donald Haider, if it is to make a choice at all.

Donald Totten, chairman of the Cook County Republican Party, said Haider, a professor in the public management program at Northwestern University, was

``the final choice`` before the committee after the other leading candidate and Haider`s colleague, professor Louis Masotti, withdrew from consideration on Sunday. Totten said party leaders would meet to discuss Haider`s candidacy.

Haider, a former cabinet officer and critic of former Mayor Jane Byrne, resigned as her budget chief in 1980. He has written numerous studies on municipal governments and served as a consultant to New York City to help it through its financial crisis in 1975. A Democrat, Haider served as an assistant secretary of the treasury during President Jimmy Carter`s administration and as an adviser to President Gerald Ford`s administration.

Haider said he would make no official announcement until after party leaders meet with the city`s Republican ward committeemen to discuss the structure of a campaign.

``Things are really moving along now, but there are negotiations to consider and more committee meetings,`` Haider said. ``No final decisions have been made. I assume that there is a tension between the committee and some committeemen, and this will be sorted out one way or another, in the Republican primary.``

Totten said he hopes Haider`s candidacy will stir support for Republicans campaigning for the Chicago City Council along the lakefront, where support for Mayor Harold Washington has weakened considerably. Haider now is an advisor to 48th Ward aldermanic candidate Cathy Osterman, a Democrat and an official with the Cook County state`s attorney`s office.

Although Totten and other leaders were left with one candidate out of several who had flirted with mayoral bids, those close to Haider say he will demand strong financial support and the backing of the Republican ward committeemen. Even so, Haider likely will face a primary fight with a former mayoral candidate and a crossover ethnic Democrat.

On Monday, former State Rep. Bernard Epton, who in 1983 lost to Washington by less than 50,000 votes in the most bitter campaign in the city`s history, is expected to announce his candidacy for mayor in the Feb. 24 Republican primary. Sources say that Epton has received $400,000 in pledges for his campaign.

Republican leaders acknowledge that State Sen. Jeremiah Joyce (D., Chicago) also could make a strong appeal to the white ethnic voting bloc. Joyce, a political associate of Cook County State`s Atty. Richard M. Daley, is circulating nominating petitions for mayor as a Republican. Joyce, a former Chicago police officer, rejected the search committee`s requirement that the Republican candidate stay in the race regardless of the outcome of the Democratic primary.

The commonly held belief among Chicago politicians is that a Republican would have a good chance against Washington should the mayor enter the race as a Democrat and defeat former Mayor Jane Byrne.

But Washington has effectively stymied Republican and organization Democrats by hinting that he run as an independent. In that way, he probably would face two strong white candidates who would split the white vote in the general election while the mayor relied on black voter support to win as he did in the 1983 primary against Byrne and Daley.

Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th), Cook County Democratic chairman, has tried to drum up support for himself for an independent or Democratic candidacy.

In an interview Sunday, Totten acknowledged that Masotti asked that his name be withdrawn.

``Louis Masotti is apparently no longer a candidate,`` Totten said. ``We are reduced to one candidate: Don Haider. The question is, is that candidate salable on the lakefront and on the Southwest and Northwest Sides? The answer is yes.``

Masotti disclosed his withdrawal in letters to Totten and former U.S. Atty. Dan Webb, chairman of the GOP`s search committee. Masotti, who like Haider is an expert on urban affairs and municipal government, said he could not secure a paid leave of absence from his teaching duties.